An oldie but a goodie
Worms can be played by 1 to 4 players offline or online and although worms has always been known as a game to play with friends there is still an addictive single player portion to this game. The single player has quickplay, training and challenge. Quickplay is just that, a small skirmish against the computer at three different difficulty levels, training has three tutorials that get you used to the interface, movement and weapons of worms and it does a decent job. Challenge mode involves twenty skirmishes of increasing difficulty, it may be multiple teams of worms you fight against or just teams of a high difficulty (nearing the end it's both) It's surprising that the only thing that changes is difficulty and number of worms as it would have been better if there were more restrictions or handicaps that were placed on your team but the challenge mode is still fun.
Multiplayer is both offline and online for up to four player with the option for bots. Online has minimum lag but unfortunately there isn't a lot of customization either as you aren't able to customise health or time until sudden death which is surprising as you could change much more in past worms games.
The gameplay of worms is just the same as past 2d worms games. The teams take in turns to attack each other with various weapons from the mundane bazooka or grenade to the wild banana bomb or sheep (an explosive sheep) Some weapons are affected by the wind direction which will involve having to change your power and angle of your shot meaning that every shot you hit with will of taken some skill. Unfortunately there are less weapons to fire in this instalment of worms than most others, there is no concrete donkey or holy hand grenade weapons to speak of even though you can do without these luxuries of the series things like the parachute should be kept in and taking the fan favourites out, takes a little of the flair out of the game. The enemy A.I usually will give you a good fight on the harder difficulty settings but sometimes the A.I will do some suspect moves that involve them blowing up and maiming their own team which on the challenge mode especially will lead to some unsatisfying victories but on the whole the A.I will put up a enjoyable fight.
The graphics of the game thankfully keep in line with the crazy thought of worms fighting it out. The Graphics are cartoony and vibrant, it helps that the catoony graphics are also very sharp with many colours. Animation is as well top notch, the little movements that the worms have, weather it be crawling along the ground or blowing themselves up gives them a great and lovable personality. Small effects like the smoke from a bazooka shell or blast of the explosions give the game an all round great look with little overlooked. The little that is overlooked is that of the tile sets you battle on. You can either fight on a tribal island littered with surf boards and palm trees or maybe you'd rather fight on an ice berg with the titanic sinking in the background. Lastly there is merry olde London that has more tea and double decker buses than you can shake an uzi at, unfortunately having only three different tile sets makes the background boring to look at after a while.
Sound effects make up the other half of the worms lovable character from the disappointed mumble of bugger when a worm hurt themselves the cold hearted scream of revenge when a worm fires, tearing the place apart with an uzi, unfortunately there aren't enough different types of voice which is disappointing as what is there is top notch. Sound effects also play a big role in making the world of worms come alive, all the weapons have distinctive sounds from the sheep's "baa" to the banana bombs bounce, all sounds sound great which unfortunately can't be said for the music. The music is boring, uninspired and lastly very quiet which is it's only saving grace, save your ears for the sound effects and squeaky voices!
The twenty challenges should last you a good few days although it's completely possible for them to take longer as a few are very challenging, worms veterans shouldn't have too much trouble though and after that how long you play it is completely up to you, the online component will keep you with fresh challengers and the beauty of worms is that it's so accessible you could stop playing it and come back after months and get right back into the groove.
All in all worms is really what the Xbox live arcade was meant for, an enjoyable game that no one would really buy in 3d and no one would pay full price for in 2d. You will definitely get 800 points worth of enjoyment out of worms but with so many of the fun weapons gone and only three tile sets veterans of the series may feel a bit short changed, still there is always the bleak possibility of downloadable content.